To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed the entire object, paste this HTML in websiteTo link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed this page, paste this HTML in website

THE ATHENIAN
OF THE ILLINOIS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY.
Vol. 1. Bloomington, Illinois, April 18, 1890. No. 7.
cite
SHOULD THE READER OF
"HENRY ESMOND" READ
"THE VIRGINIANS ?"
It has been said that humorists
are the salt of the national intel-lectual
life. What department of
literature gives us knowledge of
the life itself? Are we to search
for the intellect of a people in its
history,-the political changes it
has undergone and its growth in
temporal prosperity? Shall we
look in its biography, which shows
us how its great men lived and how
they thought? May we turn to fic-tion,
where imagination paints for
us portraits of its social life? Each
of these contributes to aid us in
the search, but it is only from the
three combined, that we can obtain
an adequate conception of a na-tion's
intellect. When, by rare
privilege, we meet an author whose
writings unite all these phases of
literature, and in addition offer the
salt of a genial humor, we are invi-ted
to a feast such as few men can
spread before us. This we find in
Thackeray, "the deepest and purest
of modern satirists."
Many critics have justly consid-ered
"Henry Esmond" as Thack-eray's
best production. Regarded
in its historical character, it is a
masterpiece of composition. With
a mind wholly free from narrow-ing
prejudice, the writer casts his
eye over the England of Queen
Anne. He grasps firmly in his
hand the numberless threads of
causes and events, and out of this
troubled period of politics, religion
and society, he weaves for his read-er
a perfect whole.
In addition to breadth of com-prehension,
the historian must
have a thorough appreciation of
the condition of the time which
he is describing, and a hearty sym-pathy
with its virtues and its weak-

THE ATHENIAN
OF THE ILLINOIS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY.
Vol. 1. Bloomington, Illinois, April 18, 1890. No. 7.
cite
SHOULD THE READER OF
"HENRY ESMOND" READ
"THE VIRGINIANS ?"
It has been said that humorists
are the salt of the national intel-lectual
life. What department of
literature gives us knowledge of
the life itself? Are we to search
for the intellect of a people in its
history,-the political changes it
has undergone and its growth in
temporal prosperity? Shall we
look in its biography, which shows
us how its great men lived and how
they thought? May we turn to fic-tion,
where imagination paints for
us portraits of its social life? Each
of these contributes to aid us in
the search, but it is only from the
three combined, that we can obtain
an adequate conception of a na-tion's
intellect. When, by rare
privilege, we meet an author whose
writings unite all these phases of
literature, and in addition offer the
salt of a genial humor, we are invi-ted
to a feast such as few men can
spread before us. This we find in
Thackeray, "the deepest and purest
of modern satirists."
Many critics have justly consid-ered
"Henry Esmond" as Thack-eray's
best production. Regarded
in its historical character, it is a
masterpiece of composition. With
a mind wholly free from narrow-ing
prejudice, the writer casts his
eye over the England of Queen
Anne. He grasps firmly in his
hand the numberless threads of
causes and events, and out of this
troubled period of politics, religion
and society, he weaves for his read-er
a perfect whole.
In addition to breadth of com-prehension,
the historian must
have a thorough appreciation of
the condition of the time which
he is describing, and a hearty sym-pathy
with its virtues and its weak-